Ore-washer



T. WISE.

Ore Washer.

NO- 38,015- Patented March 24, 1863. 4.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEO THOMAS WISE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS,

ORE-WASHER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,016, dated March 24, 1863.

To all whom it muy concern Be it known that I THOMAS WISE, of Bos ton, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Washing Orcs; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, ref erence being had to the accompanying drawing, Inaking part of this specification, and being a vertical longitudinal section of the machine employed.

My invention consists in taking the solution direct from the stamp-heads into tight containingboxes, and there separating the earthy matter from the metal by means of a forced current of air acting in combination with the water of the solution in manner hereinafter Inore fully explained.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation with reference to the drawings. Y

A is a frame, in which are pivoted a series of watertight boxes, B O D, provided at alternate ends with overiiow-apertures b c d and at one end with discharge-doors E. F is a pipe for the introduction or air at a high pressure and communicating through flexible pipes G Gr with perforated pipes H H H, ex tending around and across the lower part of the interior of the boxes. If preferred, a perforated plate or false bottom, I, may be substituted for the pipe .H in each of the boxes. In this case the iiexible pipe will communicate through an aperture in the box beneath the false bottom, as shown at G.

The operation is as follows: The solution as it passes from the stamp-mili is conducted to the upper box, B, where it is subjected to constant and violent agitation b v the air forced in at bottom through the pipe G. The water overiiows through the aperture Z1, carrying with it sand and other lighter particles into the box O, where it is again agitated, as before described, and overiiows through the aperture c into the box D, where the same process is repeated. It will be readily understood that by this means the highest grade of ore is retained in the box B, an intermediate grade in the box C, and the most inferior in the box D. To remove the washed ore, the doors E are opened and the boxes canted, as represented by red lines in the lower box. The force of the ebullition in the upper box is sufficient to expel all but the best quality of metal, (say that varying from 95 per cent.upward,) while in the lowest box the most inferior grades of ore are retained. By separating the ore into a number of different grades the whole is made to command a much higher price at the smelt works than when mixed. In the latter case the whole is worth little or nothing more than the inferior grade when separated, owing to the loss of the finer particles by oxidation and by the action of the blast in smelting.

I do not desire to beunderstood as claiming anything in common with what are technically known as dry separators,77 nor any process in which the solution is not retained in vessels in a suiticient body to admit ofthe thorough separat-ion of the `earth and metal in the manner explained. In my apparatus the boxes are always full of water while in operation, and the ore is never taken from the wat'er from the time it enters the stamp mill till the washing is completed. By this means the labor of manipulation is much reduced, the ore is more eii'ectually separated, and dust is entirely avoided.

The force at which the air is injected into the respective boxes may be graduated as occasion requires by stop-cocks in the pipes, or by other suitable Ineans.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Taking the combined ore and water direct from the stamp-heads and separating the metal in various grades by means of forced currents of air injected beneath the wa ter within a-series of tight boxes set upon pivots, one above, another, all as herein shown and explained.

THOMAS WISE.

Witn esses:

Oo'rxvIUs KNIGHT, L. W. PoENDRE. 

